1. Rolls-Royce in partnership with Academia
Presented by Phil Ruffles
Engineering Professors Congress, Cardiff University
6th April 2004

2. Why do research in academia ?
Industry benefits -
Access to high intellectual capability
Continuity and independence of thought
Cost - partially funded overheads/leverage
Academia benefits –
Opportunity to work on technically
challenging, real problems across a broad
data base
Attractive cross-cultural working
environment for University staff and
students

3. Academy - Industry collaboration - Why a better approach was needed
Pre-1990
>80 Rolls-Royce / university links in the UK (different departments / research teams)
Largely based on ‘personal’ links, with no security of future funding
Few with real ‘critical mass’ - staff or investment
Supporting infrastructure / facilities limited - difficult to argue for priority investment in any one academic group
Duplication between research teams…inevitable ?
Additional - but low - level of activity in mainland Europe and USA
(‘critical mass’ taken to mean a minimum of 6 researchers involved in a single field of relevant study preferably co-located)

4. Types of research Strategic Research Applied Research
Emerging or as yet unproven technologies
Beyond scope of current business plans
Often applicable to range of products and services
Applied Research
Development of generic capability
Product focused research
Testing of real components
Technology Validation
Validation of integrated packages of technology
Aims to provide “off-the-shelf” capability
Blended Wing Body
Fuel Cells
ANTLE Demonstrator

5. Research and Technology Management
Product Realisation
Full Concept Definition
New
Product Planning
Production
Service Support
Disposal
New Capability Realisation
Facilities
People/skills
Supply Chain
Infrastructure
R&T Strategy Planning
Rolls-Royce Strategic Intent
RESEARCH
AND TECHNOLOGY PROGRAMME
UNIVERSITY
TECHNOLOGY
CENTRES
Applied
Research
Global Academic Network
Strategic
Technology Validation
Generic
Project Specific

6. Rolls-Royce University Technology Centres
“…a case study model for the benefits of effective Industry/University collaboration.” – Richard Lambert
Centres of Excellence in specific technology fields
Concentration of activity into fewer, larger centres
Based around groups with proven track records
May be a partnership between institutes
5 year rolling contract covering business and technical goals
Security of funding enables recruitment of high quality staff
Formal IPR agreement to meet needs of both RR and UTC
Formal performance review by joint RR / UTC group
Close working enables effective technology transfer
Staff exchanges / secondments / recruitment
UTC staff involved in RR training courses and staff development activities

7. Global research base Europe North America
20 University Technology Centres (UTCs) in the UK
1 UTC in Sweden, other Nordic links being developed
1 UTC and 1 Prime Partnership in Germany
1 UTC in Italy
strong links in other countries
North America
UTC at Purdue
Strong links to MIT, Georgia Tech, Stanford, Penn State
Developing Canadian relationships
Asia
China - NPU, BIAM, BUAA, SEDRI, Tsinghua
Japan - NAL
Singapore - iHPC

8. What has been necessary to make it work well ?
Central control - policy and direction and budgets
Advisory boards
Annual Conference
Cessation of involvement with some research teams
Breaking of personal links
Acceptance of lead time to get to useful output
Up front agreement on IPR, publication, etc
Establishment of new teams
Industry commitment to fund in advance of results
Flexibility - on both sides
Mutual acceptance that long term research may be deflected - temporarily - to work on immediate, production issues
Feeds back into research areas
Focus - ensuring research targeted at ‘real’ applications
Validation and production vehicles

9. University Technology Centres
Chalmers, Gothenberg
Hydrodynamics
Strathclyde
Electrical Power Systems
Sheffield
Control & Systems Engineering
Materials Damping Technology
Advanced Electrical Machines and Drives
Design Partnership (with BAE)
Cranfield
Performance
Loughborough
Combustion Aerodynamics
Nottingham
Manufacturing Technology
Gas Turbine Transmission Systems
UMIST
Electrical Systems for Extreme Environments
York
Systems & Software Engineering
Swansea
Materials Partnership
Birmingham
Materials Partnership
Cambridge
Design Partnership (with BAE)
Materials Partnership
University Gas Turbine Partnership (UGTP)
Imperial College
Vibration
Oxford
Computational Fluid Dynamics
Solid Mechanics
Heat Transfer and Aerodynamics (Osney lab)
Sussex
Aero-Thermal Systems
Southampton
Design Partnership (with BAE)
Noise
Surrey
Thermo-Fluid Systems
Purdue, USA
High-Mach Propulsion
Cottbus
Turbomachinery

10. Rolls-Royce Research & Technology funding
UTC Funding today:
Rolls-Royce – PV Money guaranteed for a number of years
EPSRC – paid directly to the University
DTI – paid into a holding account and matched approx. 50% by Rolls-Royce
European – 100% funded by EC, paid directly to the University
MoD – paid directly to the University, some contribution from Rolls-Royce
Rolls-Royce funding geared by 2 or 3 times
Overhead rate similar to Research council levels
Good Value
…however =
Significant increase in overhead rates
DTI move away from sectoral funding
Since 1992 Rolls-Royce R&T expenditure has doubled with all of this increase occurring outside the UK
Future challenges…

11. University Technology Centres
Sheffield
Sheffield
Cambridge
Sheffield
Swansea
Cambridge
Cambridge
Sheffield

12. Engineering perspectives
Some specific examples of success…
Cambridge
Combustion technologies
JSF LiftSystem
AU3D model
Swansea

13. Summary
Rolls-Royce is proud to recognise that the company’s success in the market place today can be directly linked to our close relationship with academia